Hard Day
by Trainmaster64
Summary: Emily returns home from a hard day, to find Thomas ready to love her. Upon probing, she soon admits the difficulties she had faced that day, and how much stronger her love for him is. COMMISSIONED BY KD476.


Emily was puffing back home, feeling fed up. She had been ordered to take a large scrap train (already an indignity in itself) to Cronk, and wound up being harassed by 'Arry and Bert, the scrap diesels who worked at the Sodor Smelters Yards. Paxton, another diesel who worked there, had apologized and scolded the twins, but Emily had been too upset to care, and had eventually wound up ten minutes late after paying the diesels out. The Fat Controller was unimpressed.

Now Emily was making her way back home to Ffarquhar, wanting nothing more than to simply retire into a long and deep slumber. At that moment, Emily wanted to forget everything about her day, her troubles, her life. It always seemed that she was getting into trouble, when it was not her fault – she had been provoked by the spiteful diesel engines, and she had been the one to be punished when she had retaliated.

She considered to herself; perhaps shunting a train of scrap trucks into them and forcing them to spill their loads onto the diesels was not the smartest thing she had ever done. It was the workmen's faults – who ever loaded open wagons with scrap anyways, without even tying it down with tarpaulins? If she had been in charge, she would have made sure that the scrap was loaded properly, and the twins put in their place. She would have done it all differently, properly… but now she was in trouble for it.

Puffing into the dim light of Ffarquhar, Emily saw her shed waiting for her. The small, two-road structure was dark, and looked promising – Emily wanted to shut herself away from the world. Carefully, she made her way to the turntable, turning around and reversing into her berth. It was fortunate that he wasn't here yet… he had to be pulling the mail train… unless… "Thomas! Are you in here?"

"No!" came a cheeky reply.

Emily groaned; she hated how Thomas was able to hide as he did. Being smaller than Emily, Thomas was able to hide in the back of the sheds, where Emily could not puff backwards to meet him. Her own length and tender gave Thomas the perfect hiding place, in plain sight – though she knew she would never be ashamed of her beauty. She was special, and beautiful, and proud of it.

"Thomas, get out here. Now!"

Thomas puffed forwards, looking worried – Emily usually did not snap at him like this, unless something was wrong. "Emily… what's wrong, Em?"

"You don't want to know. Trust me, Thomas… you don't want to know."

"I do, Emily… tell me. Please? What happened to you today, my love?"

"You don't know how much I love hearing you say that, Tommy," Emily sighed, smirking as Thomas bristled – he did not like that name, and she knew it. "Oh Thomas, I'm so sorry… it's just been a bad day…"

"Would you like to talk to me about it, Em?" Thomas asked softly. "I'll listen to you. I'll help you."

"You can't help me, Thomas. You're so optimistic, but right now you can't do anything to help me. Nothing." Emily sighed deeply, trying to remain calm as Thomas kept prodding her – she wished he would just take the hint and drop the subject.

But Thomas didn't. "Come on, Emily. Please? I only want to help."

"You CAN'T. Thomas, you CAN'T HELP ME. There's NOTHING you can do. DROP IT." Emily sat on her road, fuming at the terrible day she had had. Thomas needed to let the subject drop.

"I love you, my Excellent Emily," Thomas whispered softly. "I love you."

The words were all it took for Emily's mask of stoniness and upset fall; a tear began to form in her eye as she started to tremble. "You just think you're so clever, making me cry," Emily whispered darkly. "All right, Thomas… I'll tell you about my day… you'll hear everything…"

* * *

"OI! Look, Bert!"

"What's up, 'Arry?" The diesel was busy shunting a line of rowdy trucks into position in a siding, and was not paying attention to much else.

"We have a visitor, Bert! Look…"

Bert groaned, finally looking to where his twin was talking about. As soon as he saw exactly what his twin meant, he began to smile broadly, already starting to think of ways to play with this new visitor. 'Arry was shaking with excitement; he must have already come up with a particularly good idea.

"What have you got planned, 'Arry?"

"The perfect way to mess with the 'Queen of Sodor,'" 'Arry giggled, trying to control himself. "Follow my lead…"

Emily was shunting her trucks into the sidings, fuming. The idea that she should have to pull heavy scrap trucks… the idea was laughable. She was a passenger engine, designed to pull heavy expresses across the countryside at speed, while looking glamorous and incredibly inspiring while doing it. Though she had been built at Crovan's Gate with more strength than her original design had allowed for she still felt the idea of pulling anything less than passengers an indignity.

"Oh, the indignity," she murmured to herself, blushing a bit as she remembered how Gordon always said that… she knew she was not like Gordon at all. He, at least, had been designed with the provisions to pull fast freight, if required…

Slowly, Emily shunted her trains of scrap into the sidings, waiting for Paxton. The little diesel was usually punctual to a fault – for him to keep her waiting like this meant that something was wrong. While normally Emily would be concerned for him and worry about where he had gotten to – the kindly diesel could have broken down somewhere, getting into trouble somewhere – today she was feeling bad-tempered and sulky, and couldn't have cared less.

Then, she heard two low horns, one on either side of her, and she groaned – she knew that today would get worse before it would get better. The scrap twins were out and about, which could only mean trouble for her. "Come on out, you two…"

One aside of her, the mischievous pair of diesels pulled up alongside of her. Their smirks spread across their faces, leaving no doubt in Emily's mind that they had some ideas bubbling away. "Emily… what are you doing here, I wonder…"

"Shunting this scrap for you; now leave me alone." Emily had no interest in defending herself against the two diesels today; she simply wanted to finish her work quickly and get back home as soon as she possibly could.

"Aww… poor old, worn-down Emily needs to be left all alone… so old she is, eh Bert?"

"Yeah – how old is she, 'Arry? About a hundred and sixty-two? Hah!"

Emily rolled her eyes; the twins were in a teasing mood today. Sometimes they could be as bad as the trucks with their teasing of the other engines – their tricks paled in comparison to their teasing. More often than not, Paxton had kept having to scold them severely for their somewhat harsh words, and try desperately to keep them in order – unfortunately, though he meant well Paxton was only one engine, and the diesels were not about to start being nice to the steam engines now. They would tolerate the steam engines, and no more.

"Your wheels are so big – not even George has such big wheels! What happened; did you get into trouble with a steamroller? Did he flatten your wheels?"

"Oh, ha ha ha… very funny, you two; now let me get back to work. These trucks need to be shunted into place; get moving so I can go."

"Your precious Thomas is so silly," Bert suddenly laughed. "He once got covered in eggs! What a mess he was, eh 'Arry?"

"Which time was that, Bert? When he ran away to breakfast, or when he hit the lorry?"

Both diesels laughed heartily, remembering when Thomas had struck a lorry and had gotten covered in eggs, and remembering hearing of how he had run away into the local Stationmaster's house a while ago. Emily seethed with deep fury – now the twins were crossing a line; they had no right to talk about Thomas like that. They could make fun of her as much as they liked, but she would not let them put down her Thomas like that.

"You take that back. You take it back NOW."

The twins looked at Emily's glowering visage, and simply roared with laughter. Emily fumed as the twins laughed, unaware of the dangers of trifling with her moods. "W-Why should we? We're just being honest!"

"Take it back. Now." Emily was literally trembling with fury and rage, incredibly upset and hurting for her love. She knew Thomas had made some foolish mistakes in the past – he still did – but that didn't detract from her love for him in the slightest. The sound of the twins' laughter made her so angry that her safety valves actually lifted, causing his driver to quickly make adjustments and try to control his engine.

The foolish diesels, however, saw none of this – they were busy laughing. "Silly, eggy Thomas! What a mess, all scrambled like that! His mind must be really scrambled, eh Bert?"

"So scrambled, to be able to fall in love with Emily! Look at her driving wheels! They're far too big to be of any use!"

"Shut UP! SHUT UP NOW!" Emily raged and fumed at the two diesels, incredibly hurt and angered by their words against her love.

"Oh, yeah?" 'Arry teased. "Make us, then!"

Emily said nothing as she backed away, arranging her train. The two diesels' calls and hollering after her rang within her, but she did not notice – she was busy. Carefully, she arranged a small train of fully-loaded scrap trucks into the sidings, directly in front of the twin diesels. Neither of them paid this any attention; they believed Emily was preparing to leave with a train, blissfully unaware of the danger they were about to be put into.

Normally, Emily knew that what she was about to do was incredibly wrong and senseless – but at the moment, her passion for Thomas overrode her common sense and decency. The train of scrap trucks stood alone in the siding, right in front of the twins – one shove would do it. There was not even a brakevan attached to the end yet; this was the perfect opportunity. Now, the twins would learn exactly what her Thomas went through… they would not tease her love any more…

Emily carefully pushed the train of scrap trucks forward, suddenly stopping abruptly, and watching as the trucks began to pick up speed. Giggling to herself as she saw the twins' expressions, she heard something at that moment that made her boiler go cold – the clearing of the Fat Controller's throat. Groaning, Emily could only watch as the trucks flew towards the diesels, their eyes wide with fright and shock, as she braced herself for the trouble she knew she would soon receive…

* * *

Thomas sat in the shed at Ffarquhar, listening to Emily tell her tale. Though he knew she had acted badly he couldn't help but smirk at hearing of how the twins had gotten their comeuppance – he too had dealt with the duo over the years, and had wanted to pay them out just as badly, although he knew that Emily's method was a bit more extreme and definitely paid punishments to the twins.

"… so what happened to you afterwards, Em?" he asked carefully, watching her face.

Emily sighed deeply, taking a moment before responding. "The Fat Controller decided I need to learn how to handle trucks better… he agreed with me that they were being so rude… but he punished me too! He put me on goods work for the next few weeks!" The emerald engine fumed, trembling with heavy anger, upset, bitterness and deep hurt. "He punished me, Thomas…"

Thomas was silent for a few moments, before speaking: "Emily… you were wrong… but so were they… and you punished them so much, the Fat Controller wouldn't have been able to punish them any more…"

"But he p-punished me, Thomas…"

"… don't you think he knew what he was doing, Em? He made you do heavy goods work because he knew you'd be able to let your temper out on the trucks. You'd be able to bump them and biff them, and keep from hurting the other engines – even if they did deserve it. Besides, now they won't ever be so mean to the others again."

Emily opened her mouth, then closed it again as she began to think of Thomas' words. He was right… she was angered, and tense, and now she would have the opportunity to let it out on the trucks for the next few weeks. The Fat Controller hadn't punished her… he had helped her, in the form of a 'punishment.'

Wordlessly, Thomas moved out of the shed and towards the small turntable in front of the shed. Emily was surprised; she called to him as he moved away. "Thomas… T-Thomas, come back… please?"

Thomas said nothing, slowly moving to the turntable and rotating to face her. The look in his eyes was not one of pain, or hurt or sorrow – rather, it was one of hope, care, compassion and concern… Emily trembled from the deep love she was seeing in his eyes.

Slowly, Thomas moved forwards towards Emily. The emerald engine trembled, as she looked into Thomas' eyes – his love for her, pure and absolute, was reflected back to her with quiet strength. It was clear how much he loved her, and how much he cared for her. Emily was helpless to respond – although it seemed that she had no intention of responding.

"Emily… you're so beautiful… you're excellent, Emily." Thomas smirked as Emily giggled nervously; he loved to hear her laughter. It was so gentle and sweet, and it warmed him inside each time he heard it. "Emily… you give me chills each time I look at you…"

"Oh, Thomas," Emily breathed – her dream was coming true, as it had so often before. Thomas was very sweet, and really charming when he wanted to be. In that instant, Emily knew that she and Thomas were meant to be together – nothing else mattered except for the both of them, lost in love.

Softly, Thomas touched Emily's buffers with his own, moving closer and holding her as much as he could. Emily closed her eyes, a small smile creeping up her face – she knew what Thomas was to do next. Blushing, she carefully moved even closer to him, preparing to kiss his soft lips with a gentle passion.

She never met them.

Instead, Emily felt Thomas' lips gently touching her brow, kissing her and caressing her. Emily trembled as Thomas gently kissed her, holding her close to him as she began to weep from the intense love he was giving her. He was just so caring and kind, always helping her to feel special – Emily loved it. She especially loved how Thomas made her feel so important and unique. Being important and noticed was important for Emily – she loved how Thomas was able to provide this for her.

"Oh, Emily… my Excellent Emily… you're so wonderful…" Thomas murmured, as he slowly moved to her mouth. "… so perfect… I love you, Emily. It doesn't matter what those twins said – what matters is you, my love. You are all that matters to me, Em… kiss me…"

Slowly, Emily moved forwards, kissing Thomas lightly on his lips. She gently kissed him, her lips meeting his and intertwining them both together in a lovely, deeply powerful moment of passion that could never be broken. In that instant, everything was perfect again – Emily knew that she was whole, and perfect, and that she would always have her Thomas with her to love her unconditionally, forevermore.

"… I love you, Thomas…"

"… oh, Emily," Thomas whispered, kissing her softly. "I love you too… so much, Em… no matter what, I'll always love you…"

Softly, Emily wept in the quiet of Ffarquhar sheds, holding Thomas close and trembling. Her love for him was hurting so much, making her weep from the happy pain it was causing her. Thomas simply kissed her again and again, making her blush as he kissed her softly. Emily whispered her undying adoration and love for the little engine in front of her, as she began to doze off and sleep.

"… my queen…" Thomas whispered, kissing her lips once more before returning to his own space in the shed. Closing his eyes, he too began to doze off, dreaming of happy times they had shared and would continue to have together, together forever.


End file.
